The problems in the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant

To fulfil this covenant there are some real problems. It must be remembered that this covenant is unconditional. That means that God has promised it without strings and that there is nothing that we can do for its fulfilment. It means that God Himself must fulfil this covenant or God is a liar, and that is blasphemous and unthinkable. Therefore a problem is proposed by this particular prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative singular of sperma plus Dauid, correctly translated “out from the seed of David.”

1. The big problem starts with the curse of Coniah — Jeremiah 22:30; 36:30,31. Coniah sometimes is called Jechoniah. He is also called Jehoiachin. He succeeded his father as the 19th king to rule over Judah, therefore he was descended from David and Bathsheba. There were four children who survived and Solomon became the ruling line. The line of Nathan is also recorded in the scripture. Nineteen generations down we come to Coniah, directly descended from David through Solomon. He reigned for three months and ten days — BC 597. He was told that he would never have a son who would rule under the Davidic covenant. But he did have several sons. One of his sons died childless. A second son, Shealtiel, had no children. So he found a nephew he could adopt, but he had to go over to the line of Nathan — Zerubbabel (of the book of Zechariah), the leader of the people in their return to the land. Therefore the legal line through Solomon and Coniah was cut off twice, once by his first son dying childless and secondly having to go to the other side of the family in order to get a son to continue the line. But that was cut off too because there were other people in this line who came down to Mary. Joseph was descended from the Zerubbabel side, he was the legal but not the real father and that was the final cut-off in the Coniah curse. There is a problem immediately, and that is, how can the Davidic covenant be fulfilled with the Coniah curse. The answer is found in the fact that the virgin birth brought in Mary who also was in the other line and also related to Zerubbabel, but not by physical birth.

2. The problem of the heraldry of Mary. Mary is descended from Nathan, the line of Joseph is descended from Solomon, and this poses something of a problem which is resolved by 1 Chronicles 3:5; Luke 3:31.

3. The physical death of Christ without heirs also poses a problem. This would appear to hinder the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant since Jesus Christ was not married, did not have any children, did not have any heirs, did not perpetuate the family line any further. This problem, however, is resolved by the resurrection of Christ and is so taught in Romans 1:3,4 — “ … resurrection from the deaths (pl).” Resurrection resolved the problem. Paul speaking before Agrippa in Acts 26:6-8 said the same thing.

4. The ascension of Christ in His absence from the earth. This is solved by the second advent of Christ. He left the earth to be rewarded His battlefield royalty, He will return to the earth with His battlefield royal family. The second part of this same problem is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel so that the nation is scattered all over the world. This problem is resolved by the second advent of Christ when He returns, He will regather Israel and establish and fulfil the Davidic covenant.